THT-The Somaliland Parliamentary and local Councils elections shall be undertaken in a free and fair manner as slated on the 31st of this month.
This was unanimously concurred at the Somalland presidency in Hargeisa during an elections main actors meeting hosted by president Musa Bihi.
According to a statement issued by the presidential press office , Participants included leaders of the three political parties of UCID, Wadani and Kulmiye, commissioners of the Natonal Elections commission-NEC and government officials , chief justice , attorney general
With the three weeks campaign to start next week the meeting which commended NEC for apt preparations went on to Pledge security and national cohesion conduct during the exercise.
In this election which is first joint in the country over 1,200,000 voters are excepted to cast their ballots at 1642 voting stations put in place by NEC withon the six regional (parliamentary) and 23 district (local Councils) electoral constituencies.
This meeting is very significant, coming a day after the saga of opposition parties sponsored candidates arrest ended following the withdrawal of charges and subsequent RELEASE of those detained
Statement by the presidential press service read
The President of the Republic of Somaliland, HE Muse Bihi Abdi, chaired a high level meeting that discussed the end month parliamentaryand localCouncils-elections
The meeting, was attended by the Vice President, the leadership of the three national parties, members of the Electoral Commission, the Chief Justice, the Attorney General and his Deputy and members of the Council of Ministers.
They all called for a free and fair election in the country, and for all parties to be ready to go to the polls.
First of all, important election briefs were delivered by members of the National Electoral Commission, who indicated that they were ready for the election and needed the support of all other parties involved in the election.
Chairman of UCID and WADDANI parties, Eng. Faisal Ali Hussein (Faysal Ali Warabe) and Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi (Cirro) underlined that their parties and supporters are ready to hold free and fair elections in the country. Under mamagement by electoral commission
The President of the Republic of Somaliland, and Chairman of the KULMIYE party, Mr. Muse Bihi Abdi, first thanked the leaders of the opposition parties for their hard work and dedication in preparing for the elections, and commended the members of the Commission for their efforts to prepare for the elections.
” our presence here is evidence that All parties are confident this only implementation awaited”
The President read out some of the key points of the large-scale conference, most notably the number of campaign days agreed upon by the parties to be shortened due to time constraints, and said, “We have agreed. The campaign should be for six days and each party will campaign for two days. We have also decided that the parties will apply to the commission. Each party will go to the Freedom Square one day, the regions will go to the national venue, and there will be one general demonstration On the second day, he campaigned in the districts and did not come to the main square, checking the security, checking the costs, and giving the Commission a free hand in its work and not disturbing other activities.”
Finally, the President stated that as a government, they have prepared the cost and protection of all the polling stations, and urged the Somaliland community to prepare for the elections, and to avoid any obstacles to the elections.
By: Yusuf M. Hassan